


Coming Up Even

by necromancy_enthusiast



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Competition, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Flirting, Hades Video Game Canon Typical Temporary Death, lol that's a tag now? neat, the violence isn't gore or anything hardcore but still
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28993917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/necromancy_enthusiast/pseuds/necromancy_enthusiast
Summary: Megaera never expected for Zagreus to defeat her, but she's not going to sit around and let him outpace her.
Relationships: Megaera/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18
Collections: Hades Rural Dionysia Exchange





	Coming Up Even

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ajstyling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ajstyling/gifts).



> From a game design perspective it’s perfectly reasonable that Megaera, at least at first, wouldn’t really change or become stronger as Zagreus did, especially since her sisters get thrown into the mix later on to challenge the player more. But from a narrative perspective, it makes no sense whatsoever. I don’t hold it against Supergiant or anything, it’s just one of those little logical sacrifices that comes with decent game design.

It had meant nothing at first. The little princeling decided to go through his rebellious phase and try to break out of Hades, but he had no idea what he was getting himself into. It took him several attempts through Tartarus to reach the interstice that led up to Asphodel, where she had been lying in wait.

And she wiped the floor with him. It was almost disappointing, how easy it was, how inept he turned out to be. She had expected almost nothing but ended up with nothing. She thought at best, it would take him two, maybe three more times of falling to her for him to give up on the whole farce, and then she could get back to giving her undivided attention to her work.

But no matter how many times he died, he kept trying, and every time he reached her, he was a bit stronger. He was observing her movements, picking up patterns, adapting to them. Still though, she didn’t take him seriously. So what if he was getting a bit less clumsy? She was still far beyond him.

Or at least she thought she was until the first time he killed her. She dragged herself out of the pool leading up to Lord Hades' desk once she was revived, utterly humiliated. Zagreus had defeated her? _The spoiled little princeling who had a poster of Achilles on his wall defeated Megaera the Fury?_

Hades was less than thrilled, to say the least. Megaera answered to very few people, but even she had to bow her head to him, so she took his admonishments as gracefully as she could. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again, she resolved. The games were over. She started training more than usual, observing his movements in turn, watching him train with Achilles and Skelly. The next time she met him at the end of Tartarus, she defeated him again, and the time after that. For a short while she thought that was the end of it, that she'd proven her defeat was but a fluke, an abberation. But soon enough he beat her again, and their win/lose ratio became less skewed. She refused to let herself be bested by Zagreus, and as much as it annoyed her, he was starting to occupy her thoughts more and more.

It was because she was exasperated by him, because she was doing her job to keep him from ascending to the surface, because she was putting him in his place.

That was all it was.

Or so she told herself, at first. They didn’t both end up in the lounge at the same time very often, but when they did, he was cordial to her. He smiled, joked, conversed. It was almost as if he’d forgotten their banter, their fights, and the fact that they’d both murdered each other multiple times at this point, and she didn’t understand why.

The first time he gave her nectar they both played it off as a confiscation, but they knew better. All the same, that didn’t mean she’d go easy on him. She refused to bow, to let him win this little war of theirs. How would it reflect on her if she allowed him to outperform her, to grow past her? The thought was repulsive.

Over time, she found herself going from being bored while waiting for him to annoyed to anticipatory to... Excited? There weren’t many who could match her skills in battle aside from her sisters, who were often busy on the surface, and frankly, Megaera didn’t particularly enjoy sparring with them. But Zagreus was different. He was growing, and she couldn’t let him outpace her. In the end, she supposed it was good for her, complacency bred stagnancy, after all.

The farther he got, the more he matured, the better he fought, the more his confidence grew. He was evolving from the little princeling who had attempted escape to spite his father to a man determined to see his missive through to the end. A man that was perhaps worth her time and thoughts.

_Perhaps._

“You’ve seen the surface now, and yet still you continue on,” she said. “You’ve seen what your father is capable of, I can only imagine that it wasn’t a long fight, really. If it could be called a fight at all.” She smiled, an edgy of playful cruelty to it.

“Meg, you really think I’m going to give up after everything? After all the time I’ve been wiped with the floor by you, and Lernie, and Theseus, and Asterius, and those-”

Her smirk grew ever so slightly. “The rats in the Stygian Temple?”

Zagreus laughed good-naturedly, but it was obvious there was a bit of annoyance there. “Yeah, them.”

“So, you’ve expended so much energy and time on what started out as a little whim that you’re too stubborn to cut your losses?”

“Oh come on Meg, give me more credit than that. Besides, I have to know what’s going on.” He smiled a bit. “Unless you want to tell me?”

The smirk fell from her face. “Hades explicitly forbade it.”

Zagreus sighed. “Well, then I guess I’ll keep doing things the hard way.” A short pause as he looked brought his bow, Heartseeker, to eye-level and examined it. “I met Demeter for the first time-Well, I talked to her for the first time.”

“Oh?”

“She’s awfully… Disaffected.”

“Meaning?”

“She talks about punishing humans and waging war, and I keep hearing about how little mercy she shows, if she shows any at all.” He lowered Heartseeker and looked back at Megaera. “Does it have something to do with my mother? With me?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not,” Megaera offered.

Zagreus sighed again. “I’m tired of everyone keeping me out of the loop like a sheltered little boy.”

“You _are_ a sheltered little boy. Or, well, you were.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to lie to myself, or you, about how much you’ve grown, Zag. Don’t get me wrong, you’re still sheltered, but _maybe_ you're not a little boy anymore.”

“Well, I can’t really argue with the sheltered part, now can I? But that won’t be true for much longer.” He smiled again. “So if I’m not a little boy anymore, does that make me a man?”

“I wonder,” Meg said.

He smiled slightly. “A man worthy of standing beside you?”

That momentarily caught her off guard, but she quickly recovered, that sadistic smirk reappearing on her face as she grabbed her whip. “Ask me again after I send you back to your father."

The ensuing fight felt like a rehearsed act in some ways, and like a whole new experience in others. She truly had reached a point where she had to give her all in this fight, and it had been a long, long time since she'd faced someone like that. This time, the fight was rather long and drawn out, but she was optimistic about the outcome. He was getting tired, slowing down, and that was the best time to take advantage of his weak points. But then, as she was preparing a volley of magic to leave him cornered and finish him off, he quickened his pace and aimed Heartseeker, firing an arrow that hit her square in the chest.

The magic disippated as blood drained from the wound, and before she could react, several more struck her. She struggled to stay on her feet, the pain from the arrows making it all the harder.

"Well, looks like that's another win for me Meg," Zagreus said. "Better luck next time." He turned around, but before he was two steps away, Megaera lunged toward him.

"Oh no you don't!" she said, cracking her whip and wrapping it around Zagreus' neck before pulling as hard as she could. He was forced back, unable to resist due to shock. He looked back at her over his shoulder and grabbed the whip in an attempt to untangle it from his neck, but she only pulled tighter and tighter as he gasped and choked and wheezed. It didn't take long for him to fall to his knees, and then finally to the ground. Megaera kept pulling for good measure, and once she was finally ready to claim victory, she wheezed horribly, coughing up blood that soon spilled down the front of her outfit. The adrenaline that had allowed her to take out Zagreus was failing her now, and she kneeled, coughing up more blood and attempting to apply pressure to the wound on her chest out of instinct, but she knew it was useless. Soon she too fell, consciousness draining from her body along with her lifeblood.

* * *

The next thing she knew, she was floating in something liquid that was warm, and thick, and... Red? Ah.

"Hey Meg," she heard to her left. She looked towards the voice to see Zagreus floating along with her nearby, a grin on his face. "Fancy seeing you here."

Megaera sighed, but her annoyed expression changed into the tiniest smirk as she huffed bemusedly. "You come here often?"

"More often than I'd like to admit," he said as he stood. She followed suit, and they made their way up to Hypnos.

"Hypnos?" Zagreus called to the napping god, who awoke with a startle and quickly grabbed his ledger as he mumbled something the other two couldn't make out.

"Oh, hey Zag, and Meg too! Nice to see you! Sooo, what brought you back here today?" He checked his ledger. So Meg strangled you to death, Zag?"

"Yep, she truly is breath-taking," he replied. Megaera jabbed him in the side for that.

"Aaaannndd Meg... Zag's Heartseeker took you out, huh?"

"I subcame to my wounds dealt to me by Heartseeker, yes."

"I don't remember Heartseeker being able to fire on its own," Zagreus said.

Hypnos went on. "And you both died right around the same time and came back here together," he chuckled a bit. "Wow, that doesn't happen too often around here, and I've been doing this for, uh..." he paused thoughtfully for a moment, but soon abandoned the train of thought. "Anyway! As for the official count," he flipped to the back of his notes where a series of numerals were scribbled down. "Since killed each other in the same fight, then you both kind of won and lost, huh? Should we count that as one for both of you, or just treat it as void?"

"It doesn't matter," Megaera said.

"Yep!" Hypnos agreed. "I guess we'll just throw this one out, which means we've still got twenty-three wins for you, and twenty-three wins for Zag. You two sure are getting into this, huh."

"Oh, it's all in good sport, right Meg?"

"You can keep telling yourself that if you want," she replied, that very slight smirk reappearing on her face momentarily.

"Well, you two keep at it, alright? I'm proud of you both," Hypnos said, and with that, he turned back to his ledger, floating over to the nearest shade at the front of the line.

"Sooo," Zagreus intoned as he loitered, not wanting to be harangued by his father just yet. "What was that question you were going to answer for me after you sent me back to my father?"

"I have no recollection of such a thing," Megaera said.

"Aw come on Meg," Zagreus said.

"Very well," she said. "Then I'll answer your question: I don't know."

Disappointment became obvious on Zagreus' face. "Oh," he said, tone downtrodden.

"If you don't know, then how can I?" Megaera explained.

Zagreus sighed and looked away. "That's fair."

"But maybe there's some way you can prove it to both of us."

He looked back at her. "Huh?"

"Usually when we meet, we spend all our time killing each other. That doesn't leave much room for conversation, does it?"

"Aaaaand?" Zagreus intoned, his smile returning.

"Maybe if we spend time together where we're not trying to maim one another, we could find out if you're worthy of standing by my side."

"So like a date?"

She huffed again, still smirking. "Call it whatever you want."

"Yes!" Zagreus said.

"Don't get cocky, Zag. I can't say I find that attractive," she said, but she was still smiling.

"So, where should we go? The lounge, the great hall... Asphodel? I hear the flowery meadow is particularly blazing this time of year."

"Quite the variety of options, I see."

"Well, you can blame my father for that."

She didn't respond to that. "Just realize what you're getting yourself into."

"Don't worry, I can handle it!"

She moved closer to him, straightening her posture and looking down at him, taking his chin into her hand and tipping it upward so he was looking her in the eyes, an amused smile still on her face. "You better hope so, Zag. You'd better hope so."


End file.
